


oh, no, no [we're not together]

by leothequeenn



Category: Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins
Genre: 6k words of what tf am i doing, Alternate Universe - College/University, College AU, F/M, THIS WAS HARD AF TO WRITE, i don't remember much from johanna's past if there was anything about it so i just kinda, pretty much lol, went with it honestly
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-16
Updated: 2015-07-16
Packaged: 2018-04-09 14:11:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,214
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4351952
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/leothequeenn/pseuds/leothequeenn
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“How about an aquarium?”<br/>“You… You want to go to an aquarium? Of course you want to go to an aquarium. What, an hour a day out on the lake isn’t good enough for you?”</p>
            </blockquote>





	oh, no, no [we're not together]

**Author's Note:**

> this was from a tumblr post that i had found on pinterest and it basically said “don’t take me on a date to an aquarium because i will ignore you and spend the whole time looking at the fish” and this popped into my head sorry i kinda took it to a whole 'nother level tho.

Johanna didn’t like going on dates. Johanna liked swinging axes and knives and sharp things and liked intimidating her peers and friends with her equally sharp wit and bitterness. She liked being spontaneous and unknown and unpredictable. Johanna liked her friend, Finnick, and that Katniss girl, maybe. She’s cool. Johanna liked them.

She didn’t like spiders (killing them is easy, though) and she didn’t like her neighbors Nuts and Volts and, speaking of people she didn’t like, she definitely didn’t like the president of Panem.

So going on dates or going on things that look like dates when you’re in public was not her thing. At all. She doesn’t like when people assume she’s on a date.

Dates are for dating people. Not her.

So, honestly, whenever Finnick just asked her if he could come over and hang out for a while at her house, she didn’t really mind and told him that _yeah, he could_. She didn’t mind. They would just be at her apartment and maybe watch a movie, throw popcorn at each other and she would end up challenging Finnick to catch the kernels she threw at him with his mouth. She would make him clean up the pieces of popcorn he didn’t catch, because _come on, Finnick, learn to catch popcorn with your mouth_. Though, Johanna had to admit, he had gotten a lot better at it.

She did mind whenever Finnick hung up with, “alright, it’s a date, I’ll see you in twenty,” and it caught her attention even whenever she hung up the phone and set it back down on her bed. What did he mean, _it’s a date?_ It was probably Finnick being Finnick, honestly, and so Johanna didn’t mind it too much and looked out the window of her apartment instead, seeing the forest of trees in front of her.

She couldn’t wait until it was closer to it was colder where she could just go to her cabin up in the woods and swing and swing and swing until her arms give out. That was what she really wanted to do. There was no one in the woods, she could scream and scream and scream until her throat was raw but she couldn’t do that now (her neighbors would call the police and surely Nuts would go even more nuts because of the whole situation and it would be awkward). She wanted to scream, though, she’s always wanted to scream out ever since her parents died and she was left with her weird aunt (who, she guessed, turned out to be alright, taught her how to use an axe and how to throw things and chop down trees) but that was okay, since she was going to visit her aunt when October comes in her cabin. She really secretly wanted it to be hers, and she’s told that to Finnick a dozen times but the boy always just shakes his head and says her name like she’s _pleased_ him and that she’s _hilarious_.

Finnick was always like that, though. Always looking at her like she's the greatest thing to happen to him, since last year. Whatever. Johanna huffed, leaning on her windowsill and staring at the trees and how they swayed in the wind. She didn’t really like being outside while it was hot, but if it meant that she could just sneak away later on in the afternoon, just to practice her axe, she’ll do it. Seeing her sick aunt may have to wait, but practicing axes didn’t. Plus, she’d be in the shade. She glanced over her shoulder, looking at her axe that was proudly hung up on the wall inside of her closet. She could take it and sneak out and practice for a bit, Finnick was taking a while anyway.

She’d be back before him. She sighed and got dressed into something else, some yoga pants (since, why not? They’re comfortable) and a tank top, and she laced up her combats boots before grabbing her axe. She’ll have to slip it into her bag, since she was sure the front desk wouldn’t like her walking around with such a weapon -- she’d already gotten in trouble twice for that -- and she dug around in her closet to find her bookbag. Once she found it, she headed down the stairs and toward the door and walked into a body.

She stepped back a few steps, looking at the smug smile that the person wore. Finnick. Maybe he’d gotten there before she thought he would. “Going somewhere, Mason?”

“I was gonna go--”

“I see that,” Finnick grinned and bowed his head, “so, am I just gonna stand here or are you gonna let me in?”

 _What the hell was going on?_ She arched an eyebrow, “why should I let you in? Maybe I wanna swing my axe around for a bit.” She crossed her arms and Finnick looked her in the eyes and she sighed, “fine, come on in. I’ll put my axe back.”

“Glad you love me more than your weapon of choice,” the blond haired boy said as he stepped in, sitting down on her couch and she walked back upstairs, huffing as she did so to let him know that they both had horrible timing. What was she even thinking? Finnick did say he was gonna be twenty minutes, why did she even think she could make one swing in?

She toed her boots off after untying them and slipped her yoga pants off, grabbing a pair of shorts instead and putting them on. She hung her axe back up in its respective place before tossing her bookbag back into the abyss of a closet floor, covered in clothes and shoes and, was that Finnick’s sweatshirt? That’s Finnick’s sweatshirt. Whatever. She slid the door closed and grinned to herself in the mirror. _He’s not getting that back anytime soon._

The sweatshirt was a dark blue and it had _Odair_ and the number four on the back, thanks to the swimming team, and it was big and cozy (not that she would _ever_ tell Finnick that) and she liked wearing it. He had given it to her last fall whenever they both went to a haunted hayride with Peeta and Katniss, and she hadn’t ever given it back. She didn’t plan to. She could see why Annie Cresta liked stealing his sweatshirts, honestly. They were great.

She quickly wondered where Annie was at, anyway, and why Finnick was hanging out with her whenever she was somewhere, before another thought popped into her head about how Finnick told her Annie and her family moved away three summers back. She looked at herself before opening the door, grabbing the sweatshirt and slipping it over her head. She took a ponytail and tied her medium-length hair up, huffing and blowing her bangs out of her face. She couldn’t wait to see how Finnick would react to her wearing his old high school sweatshirt.

“Are you dead up there?” Finnick asked coyly from the bottom of the stairs and she opened the door, heading toward the top of the stairs. “I picked out a few movies for us,” he mumbled, watching her and arching an eyebrow. That’s it. That’s the reaction she was expecting. She wasn’t expecting him to do anything spectacular, either. Though, if it had been Annie, he would’ve picked her up in his arms and kissed her until she couldn’t feel her own goddamn mouth and, _oh my god_ , what was she doing? Why did she care what the fuck he would’ve done? And plus, Annie was gone, she had moved. He wouldn’t be able to pick her up and spin her around anymore, not that Johanna cared. She didn’t care how Finnick felt about Annie, or her. Didn’t matter. While Annie was here she didn’t interfere and now that she was gone, why should she interfere? Even now?

“One of them better have gore in them,” Johanna walked down the stairs and Finnick laughed, shaking his head. “No, actually, I don’t want to see that. So what movies did you pick out?” She made her way to the couch, a little on edge since wearing his sweatshirt had given her nothing but a raised eyebrow. Whatever, she didn’t care. Finnick sat down next to her and glanced at the DVDs he had set out on the coffee table.

“Do you want to watch movies?” he asked suddenly, and looked over at her. “I mean, that’s like, our thing, but we could maybe do something else, and then come home and watch a movie, or something.”

“You feelin’ okay, fishie?” Johanna arched an eyebrow. “You’re acting kinda weird.”

“You’re wearing my sweatshirt,” Finnick muttered, and the arched eyebrow Johanna wore turned into two arched eyebrows. “Not that that isn’t a bad thing! I just didn’t know you kept it.”

“You gave it to me seven months ago, Finnick. What does this have to do with movies?” She watched him carefully and quietly, suddenly feeling the urge to reach her hand over to gently grab at him. He wasn’t answering her and was probably lost in a daze and he didn’t answer her question because what the fuck does that have to do with watching movies? Did he not want to watch movies? Would he rather do something else? “Finnick, answer me.”

He turned toward her and gave a slight smile as she reached over, tugging a bit at the curly hair by his neck. “Ow,” he flinched and Johanna retracted a hand back. “No, you can keep doing that, it just surprised me is all.”

Johanna, not liking being told what she could and couldn’t do, instead tried lightly scratching his hairline on the back of his neck, and watched as Finnick’s shoulders seemed to relax. “You’re such a weirdo,” she mumbled, “now answer me. Do you not want to watch a movie? I was just thinking we could stay inside or something. Looks like it might rain.” she glanced out the window as if to give an effect of _she was really worried about the rain_ , but honestly she couldn’t give a damn, she was about to go out anyway. She just didn’t want to be in public places with him, since they were close friends and the world didn’t think they could hang out and not be seen as some romantic couple. Though, she did like him. How much, she wasn’t sure, but she did.

“And you’re the one that wanted to go out and swing an axe,” he grinned over at her and she scowled.

“Don’t make me hit your neck instead,” Johanna warned, though it was pretty much an empty threat, because she knew that she wasn’t going to hit him just yet. Later on in the day, maybe, but not now. “So what could we do, instead of watching a movie?”

“How about an aquarium?” Finnick asked without skipping a beat and Johanna could tell he had been thinking about it a lot longer than what she had expected. She turned toward him once more.

“You… You want to go to an aquarium?”

Finnick’s smile faltered whenever her scratching paused, and Johanna glanced away from him. What could she say to that? _No, sorry, I don’t really want to be seen with you because with how you’re acting, people might think we’re the next Katniss and Peeta_ didn’t seem to be the nicest thing to say, but then again, when had she ever been nice? But this was Finnick that she was talking to, and she couldn’t just say that to him. Though, when did she start caring about what anyone thought, anyway? She shook her head. She had to say something.

She instead laughed, because Finnick, the fish boy, wants to go to an aquarium. “Of course you want to go to an aquarium. What, an hour a day out on the lake isn’t good enough for you, fishie?” She didn’t mean it in a harsh way, she made sure he knew she was just teasing him and she continued to scratch his hairline to reinforce that she was.

“I’m gonna pretend you said that whole thing with love,” Finnick responded, flashing a white smile toward her and this was her chance to say something about him and how _yes_ , she did say that with love, _catch up, Finnick_. “So is that a yes? And you can wear my sweatshirt, but it seems like you already know that part.”

Johanna grumbled something about how she wanted to stay inside, but a tiny, little, “yes, that’s a yes,” crept out of her throat and she tried to ignore how Finnick coyly pulled her into him like it was the most casual thing he could ever do. Which, technically, now that Johanna thought about it, was. He wasn’t usually a touchy person, though, at least he wasn’t to Katniss or anyone else. His friend, who was actually more like family than anything else, Mags, he always picked her up and carried her around but that was nothing compared to the way he pulled her closer to him. It was different than how he usually did it, even if he was now simply showing her the movies he had picked out for them to watch later, after the aquarium trip. Johanna tried to focus on the films instead of how his arm was wrapped around her side, his fingers curled up against her hip. There were scary movies, violent movies, horror movies, even a rom-com he had picked out but they ended up always making fun of them if they did watch something like that. He had also picked out a romantic film, and Johanna wore a smirk. The only rule for their movie days was: no Chucky films, _ever_ , no puppy movies unless they’re both sure the dog is safe, and no romantic movies at three in the morning. That last rule was set into place whenever Finnick was all hyped up on Monster and they watched Titanic together late at night (Johanna knew that was gonna be a bad idea, and yet she rolled with it, only to lead Finnick upstairs and have him spend the night at her place -- they ended up sleeping until noon the next day, locked in each other’s arms.)

She just went with a horror movie, even though she had seen that one before and went upstairs to grab some shoes and her sunglasses before heading back downstairs, grabbing her bag that held her wallet and keys inside. She looked over at Finnick, who slipped on some flipflops, and she rolled her eyes.

“Do you have your keys?”

“Nope, I just magically got here with no car or anything,” Finnick responded, smiling at her and putting his sunglasses on his head. She stepped over and slapped the back of his head, scowling a bit at him. “Don’t ask a stupid question and expect to not get a stupid answer in return,” he teased, smiling at her and she rolled her eyes, walking out of the door without another word. He followed her out and she locked the door to her apartment, and continued on silently walking toward the elevator, Finnick following her.

* * *

“I might ignore you and just look at the fish,” Johanna muttered on the car ride there, her head resting against the window of the passenger’s side. She had offered to drive but she wasn’t quite sure where the aquarium was, and she definitely wasn’t sure which aquarium Finnick was thinking about taking her to. There had been multiple road trips in Finnick’s car, many restless nights where Finnick and Johanna had nightmares and they just would take off for a little while, just drive off some place since hey, they couldn’t sleep in the first place. Johanna never knew specifically what Finnick’s nightmares were about, since he never told her about them and she never asked. She just assumed they were as bad as (or rather, worse than) hers.

“Well, that’s no fun,” Finnick mumbled, getting into the left lane of the interstate. “This was supposed to be a fun date--”

“It’s what I would do anyway, and you know it, so don’t be so surprised,” she hissed, glaring him down with an icy look in her eyes. _He said date again_ , she thought bitterly, watching him as he focused his eyes back on the road. She huffed, resting her head against the glass of the window once more, watching the cars in front of them continue moving at the speed at which they were traveling at. She sighed, this time more smoothly than her last exhale, and she glanced back over at the other. His lips were in a small frown, like he wanted to say something else, but couldn’t. She hadn’t seen him look like that in a while. “Look, whatever,” she mumbled, giving in to how Finnick looked, “it’ll be a fun time, I guess. I’ll just watch the fish instead of you.”

“I can live with that,” he winked over at her like she hadn’t just snapped at him, and Johanna glared back out the window again.

_Dates are dumb. Boys are dumb. Axes are much better, being by myself is much better than boys and dates and other stupid things._

She paused her internal ranting, wondering how Katniss was doing with her boyfriend. She had grown to like Katniss and Peeta, but Katniss especially since she could be snarky when she needed to be and Johanna liked her for that. Katniss was like a little sister to her, really, and that was something that she missed having. She missed her family, and it was weird seeing Finnick hanging onto Mags for dear life because she herself was never that way toward her aunt. She was never that way toward her parents when they were alive either, really, but whatever. Finnick was more of a ‘people person’ than Johanna was, and he knew that, she knew that and she didn’t care. But Katniss, there was something about her that Johanna truly liked and she didn’t know why. Though, it was weird, now that she thought about it, no matter how many times Johanna pretended (or lack thereof) to fight with Finnick, Katniss couldn’t ever replace him. Peeta couldn’t even replace him. He was just too special and understanding, too much of a charming social butterfly that seemed to drag Johanna into everything he did because why the hell not? And while Katniss could possibly relate to losing a parent, she couldn’t relate to things Johanna had experienced through middle school and high school like her and Finnick did. She hung with the wrong crowd, got involved in things that she didn’t even want to do back then, and she had just assumed that was what Finnick had done too and stuck with him. Stayed by his side, really, and they had grown on each other. But even then they were different. Johanna was by herself and Finnick was always head over heels in love with a poor, mad girl who he visited in the psychiatric hospital every Friday.

She wasn’t ever really jealous of Annie, just jealous of the love that Finnick had -- well, _has_ \-- for her and jealous of how much shit they’d been through and still was able to find love. Great, now she was sounding like a lovestruck Peeta, but she honestly was alone, there wasn’t anyone left she loved. _Well_ , she glanced over at Finnick, _not really_. She then turned back to the window, biting down on her tongue. Did she really just think that? She did love Finnick, and holy shit, Finnick was taking her out on a date, but she had just never assumed he had gotten over his _one and only love_. He had told her and Katniss and everyone that his love for Annie was strong and eternal, even if Katniss’s adopted uncle, Haymitch, laughed and said, ‘you clearly haven’t been married’. Peeta then had to go explain to Finnick in private that Haymitch was only kidding, being married to Effie Trinket was probably just him biting off more than he could chew, and being married to Annie wouldn’t be _such a horrible thing, you’re just in love, I wanna marry Katniss, so if you’re crazy I’m crazy as well_ , and while that was happening, both Effie and Katniss were glaring down Haymitch, who just laughed and went to get another drink.

Johanna sighed once more, wanting to bash her head against the fucking glass window. There she was again, thinking about Annie and how Finnick loved her and if she didn’t know better, she would’ve thought they were driving together to go see her sitting there in that damn hospital bed. Johanna had only seen her, visited her once before, she had never really wanted to go because that was Finnick’s time and she didn’t want to intrude, and Annie had smiled at her like she was the fucking sun and it made her chest hurt because she was never like that. No wonder Finnick had chosen her, stayed with her throughout all this tough shit because Annie was literally an angel in Finnick’s life while Johanna had just been a nasty commoner. Ever since then, she made a promise to never fall in love with anyone because she wouldn’t love like Annie and her love wouldn’t even compare to how special their love was. Her love wouldn’t even be as special as Katniss’s and Peeta’s, even if it did take the damn kid close to ten years to say something to her.

She needed to stop. She wasn’t about self-deprecating herself and she surely wasn’t going to start just because she was comparing herself to Katniss or Annie. She needed to stop before it got too out of hand.

“Hello? Earth to Johanna?” Finnick’s voice came into her thoughts and she almost cringed at how invasive they were, how they were suddenly there and she turned her head toward him, arching an eyebrow.

“What?”

“Wow, that’s a sight I haven’t seen in a while. Our very own Johanna Mason, dazed and in her own mind. We're here.” Finnick snickered a bit and Johanna rested her head against the headrest. He paused, furrowing his eyebrows together, “what’s wrong? Something bothering you?” She glanced at him and wondered _why the fuck isn’t he steering, why is he looking at me_ and she jumped forward, grabbing at the wheel before realizing they were parked, they weren’t driving at all. “Okay, yeah, something’s off.”

“Shut up,” Johanna managed out as some sort of input, and she opened the car door, grabbing her things and stepping out, “I’m still gonna watch the fish instead.”

* * *

Johanna tried not to notice how Finnick slipped his arm around her shoulder as they were waiting in line to get admission to the aquarium. She also tried not to notice how he was willing to pay because that looked bad to her, and she offered consistently, but he just laughed, shook his head and continued to hand the lady his card because _he fucking could_ and it pissed Johanna off. Still, she nodded her head at his nice gesture and the two walked in, Finnick putting her wristband on first before doing his own. Johanna instead looked around the building, noticing the blue walls and the people and children walking around with toys and stuffed animals and food.

“So, when do I have to pay you back?” Johanna asked nonchalantly as they walked, and Finnick entwined his hand with hers. She tried not to notice as she looked around the room, glancing at all of the fish and the creatures they had instead of at the people who were walking along.

“You’re not gonna pay me back, because you don’t have to,” Finnick smiled at her, or at least she thought he was smiling at her and she hummed, since that was the only response she was going to give him as she continued watching the fish swim around in their tanks. She felt his hand tighten around hers and she paused instead, watching him instead. There was a soft smile on his face, one that she assumed that he would only give Annie, and she arched an eyebrow at him. “You see that over there?” he asked, pointing to a tank, “that’s a lungfish. They can’t breathe underwater.”

“Of course you’d know that, fish boy,” Johanna smirked over at him, “so how exactly do you know that?”

“I am studying to be a marine biologist, you know. That’s my major.” Finnick winked at her and took her toward the tank. “So I technically know a thing or two about fish.” Johanna nodded and looked at how the fish would come up from water to breathe in air.

“It reminds me of you,” Johanna muttered, “I don’t know why. But it does.”

“That’s an odd thing to say,” Finnick mumbled and looked over her shoulder. Johanna looked toward him, then to where he was looking at curiously, noticing a small girl with blond hair. She looked about eight or nine and she had a princess dress on. Of course, that was typically how people dressed where she lived. Always dressed up and ready to see someone, as if they had any time to do that. Johanna lived on the outskirts of the town, though, after moving from her hometown, and she made sure to pick a place near some forest so she was at least close to home.

“What’s she looking at?” Johanna asked without taking her eyes off of the little girl. “Is she looking at us?”

“Appears so.” Finnick answered with a smile and tightened his grip on Johanna’s hand. It was weird, noticing how someone actually fucking noticed that _um_ , they were holding hands, and it looked like the little girl wanted to say something until her mother shushed her and turned her toward the fish they were looking at. _Oh god, oh god_. She should’ve never come out with Finnick in public. It was like he was doing this on purpose.

“Why would she be doing that?” Johanna asked, arching an eyebrow at him. “She’s still looking at us.”

She watched as the girl turned toward her mother and whispered something to her before walking over to them, bowing her head slightly as she continued to walk. Johanna’s grip tightened on Finnick’s hand and she turned toward the fish tank, pretending to look there instead of at the little girl. “Excuse me?” she giggled, playing with the edges of her dress. “What are you guys looking at?”

“Uh, lungfish…” Johanna answered quietly, looking at the girl. “They’re pretty ugly creatures, if you ask me.”

“And yet, you compared me to them,” Finnick spoke up, feigning offense and Johanna smirked, looking down at the little girl whenever she started to laugh. “Are you saying something, Jo?”

“No, no, I’m not saying anything,” Johanna rolled her eyes, “anyway, so, um…” she watched as the little girl straightened her back and fumbled with her dress. Johanna arched an eyebrow, and she knew that the little girl was scared to approach her, but why? Why was she approaching them in the first place?

“I hope some day I can have a boyfriend like yours! He knows a lot and a lot about fish… I want to have a boyfriend like that! But not right now because boys have cooties and I don’t want cooties.” The girl grinned, and Johanna noticed that she had a gap in her teeth. But that didn’t matter, because she was right, Johanna was _fucking right_ because as soon as Finnick was holding her hand and showing her around like a couple, someone had spotted them and the tiny little girl had the balls to say something to her, to _them_. Sure, Johanna might be fine with it, thinking back on it later and pretending like it was nothing, but what about Finnick? Finnick was still probably in love with Annie, and now he was getting confused for dating someone else? That must’ve sucked.

“Oh, no, no, we’re not together--” Johanna started, but a gasp from Finnick had her stopping her sentence faster than she could process what was happening. “What?”

Finnick walked toward the little girl and whispered rather loudly, “princess! You almost have ruined my plan! But, that’s okay, that’s okay, we can tell her together! Or, rather, I could tell her and then you can go and tell your mother all about it, princess.”

Johanna scowled. Finnick, of course, had a way with children. Of fucking course. The girl giggled and nodded her head, clapping as she did so. Finnick stood and bowed, looking awfully ridiculous but that was what Finnick did and he didn’t care and so naturally Johanna had to go along with it, just to make the girl that she didn’t even fucking know happy. Finnick kissed Johanna’s hand like she was some prize at a masquerade party in the 1800s, but that was fine because he asked her then if she would be his girlfriend and it made Johanna feel really uncomfortable about the damn thing. People were staring and she muttered out, “yes,” and Finnick grinned and kissed her hand again before winking at the little girl. The little girl ran off and people stopped staring and Johanna muttered out once more, “I think people were expecting you to propose or something, what a disappointment.”

Finnick laughed and gave a smile toward her like he didn’t just kiss her hand twice and act like he was her boyfriend, because he wasn’t. Or, was he? She didn’t really know.

“We’re not together, are we?” she asked quietly as she walked along, her hands clenched and to her sides, without Finnick’s hand getting in the way. “We’re not together. I mean, I got that you asked me out in front of that girl but we aren’t together.”

She tried to ignore how Finnick stopped completely but she just couldn’t and she turned around to face him. “I mean, I was going to ask you when we got to the penguins, but if you want me to ask you for real this time, right now, I can--”

“No, no, you can wait until the penguins.” she muttered and turned around, continuing to walk and Finnick caught up to her, slipping his hand into hers and Johanna bit down on her tongue to keep from saying anything about it. She watched the fish and the other creatures in the tank, absorbing as much information from them as possible. She had wanted to learn marine biology, but she didn’t know why. Maybe it was because it was the fucking ocean, and according to Finnick, they’d only discovered like, three percent of it and she was intrigued by it. Of course, she would never do it because she never really liked water (land was more of her thing anyway) but that didn’t mean she couldn’t learn about it. She hated learning about it in school, but whatever. Whenever she was walking around and experiencing how they move and how they eat in real life, it was better than just the textbook -- even if the animals were in tanks. She heard Finnick talking but didn’t pay much attention, too busy looking at the animals and whatnot swim in their captivities. Honestly, she was more surprised at herself for not thinking about how _Finnick actually wanted to ask her out_ , but how she was rather busying herself with squids, clown fish, sea snakes, catfish, tiger sharks. She ignored how Finnick grabbed for her hand, stroking her skin with his thumb.

She could feel Finnick looking at her and smiling like he was watching her soak up as much information as she could and honestly, it didn’t feel right. Annie was supposed to be in her place, walking around with Finnick and learning things about the ocean that she didn’t know before, even if he had told her those things already from his classes. She wasn’t the one that was supposed to be there, hand in hand with Annie’s dream boy, it didn’t feel right. It didn’t feel real.

When she reached the penguins she arched an eyebrow over at Finnick, who simply swallowed harshly and looked down at their hands. “Um.”

“Wow, Mr. Smooth-With-The-Ladies, running out of words to say. What a sight to see.” Johanna teased mercilessly, smirking over at the taller boy. “You tease me, I’ll tease you. That’s how this works, remember? And why would you want to ask me out? What about--”

“Don’t say her name, please.” Finnick paused, closing his eyes, “I’m… I’m trying to get over it, her moving, I’m just trying to get over everything…”

“You don’t have to do this,” Johanna rolled her eyes, looking at the penguins and how they danced and swam around in their tank. She wondered if she could just turn into a penguin. Penguins don’t have to have love in captivity. She would be free from it. She would be free from Finnick and all the bullshit that had to happen today. Though, Finnick was her best friend and so she wouldn’t want to be away from him too long. It was just the thought of being a penguin for her entire life didn’t sound too bad at the moment. Not that she would ever tell Finnick that, since he’d tease her to death with wanting to be a penguin. Or act hurt if he knew it was to escape from him and his question.

“But I want to do it. I’ve wanted to do it.” And Johanna had to laugh, because _really? Whatever, Finnick_. “Okay, I know why you’re laughing. I’ll be honest… I didn’t want to do it my whole entire life, but… Well, it started around last year.” And then, as if she couldn’t feel worse about the situation, he added a simple “sorry.”

“Why the fuck are you saying sorry?” she hissed, tugging on his arm. “Just, can we go home? I feel bad enough coming here, and fuck, you probably took her to this aquarium and what not and dammit, Fin, this is why we stay at my house or yours only.” She was rambling, she knew that, but Finnick still pressed his lips to her cheek and oh, God, she would’ve snapped if it wasn’t Finnick doing that. She still, however, glared at him to get her point across. “Come on, you kissed me, great, it’s not like you hadn’t done that before.”

“But I had meant it that time, for real. How about I buy you something from the gift shop and we can go home after that, okay?” he compromised and she sighed, looking at the ceiling before at her feet, and she nodded her head. “Okay. And, I’m sorry about embarrassing you in front of that little girl,” he said with a wink as they walked toward the gift shop, still hand in hand because she hadn’t removed her own and Finnick had tightened his own grip, as if to get his point across. Johanna didn’t resist it that time, she let him lead her to the gift shop, she let him let her pick a stuffed animal (a shark, figures) and she let him pay for it.

The way out to the car is a silent one, and Johanna got in the vehicle and pressed the shark to her chest. She didn’t want to be confronted by another girl like that whenever she wasn’t even dating Finnick ever again. Finnick climbed into his car and glanced over at her, arching an eyebrow. “That’s cute,” he said as she hid her face into the open mouth of the shark.

“Shut up,” she muttered, glancing over at him. “You suck. That girl’s gonna grow up and think we’re together.”

“Well, I’d want to be together,” he grinned and she looked out the window instead. It still didn’t feel right. He said his love for Annie was eternal, and now he just admitted he’d want to date her? Maybe she was wrong for keeping the Annie thing over his head, since people could change, but she was just holding him true to his words. “I mean, you’re the greatest thing I have.”

“Wow, thanks, Finnick.” Johanna muttered and sighed whenever he leaned over and pressed another kiss to her head. “No more kisses until I say yes.”

Finnick smirked, “then when will you say yes?”

“After the movie we’re watching,” Johanna grinned, looking over at him. Maybe she shouldn’t have held Annie against him. Though, she hadn’t had the best time with love, but she trusted Finnick and wouldn’t that be enough? She knew she wouldn’t ever be as good as Annie, but she could still try and still do a damn good job of it. She actually hoped that the girl would remember Finnick being as dorky as possible.

There was another grin on his face, and he turned the ignition on, saying, “then you better pick a short movie, I’d love to hear you say yes as soon as possible.”

“So romantic. Take me home, fish boy.”

“Can do, Jo.”

**Author's Note:**

> shamelessly steps into the johanna/finnick boat and sails off by myself


End file.
